Embryology in the Qur'an lecture by Dr. Keith L. Moore (University of Illinois, 1990)

[Music] [Music] And now I'd like to introduce to you uh Dr. Keith Moore. Now I may consume quite a bit of your time if I want to tell you all about Dr. Keith Moore. However, briefly, Dr. Moore is the u dean of the college of medicine at the University of Toronto in Canada. He is a professor of embiriology. has been Professor for 20 years in uh the University of uh Manitoba in Winnipeg and he has been the chairman of the department for 11 years. Dr. Moore has written about six seven books actually four books in

embiology one in neuro neuro anatomy and two in gross anatomy uh Dr. Moore is a fellow of international academy of psychology. He's the president of the association of American association of clinical Anatomists and u he is his uh books are being taught uh in the medical schools throughout the world not only in this country or Canada but throughout the world and his research in the embiology field is uh very outstanding. I believe that you will find it so when we listen to Dr. Moore. May we welcome Dr. Moore. Gentlemen, I'm very pleased to be here.

Um, when I was first called about Attending this uh meeting, uh, I didn't think it was going to be possible for me to do so, but I didn't realize at the time that it was a students association that was inviting me here. Had I known that, I probably would have accepted right away because I get a lot of invitations from students uh groups uh across Canada United States and I try to accept as many of those invitations as I can. So uh I want to tell you about uh Some uh studies that uh I and

others have done uh in the last 10 years. Uh I first became aware of the uh Quran about 10 years ago when I visited Saudi Arabia uh at the invitation of King Abdulaz's university to lecture in embryology and at that time I was asked about some of the the meaning of some of the verses in the Quran and uh I tried to uh interpret them as best I could and that really started a study which has lasted for about 10 years in a part-time way. And Uh I've been happy to tell people about uh these

uh uh findings because it's been very uh inspiring to me because I've already always been interested in the history of uh embryology. Uh and some of the early history is not very well known to us. Now I'm going to uh follow my notes fairly closely so that uh I won't talk too long. So I want to start then with the historical background and uh the first uh scientific studies in embryology as far As we know were uh done by the Greek uh scientists in the fifth century BC. uh Hypocrates who we know as the father

of medicine and uh after whom the hypocratic oath is named uh was one of the first to write books on embryology and later Aristotle another famous Greek philosopher and scientist studied chick embryos actually opened eggs and was able to study the development concluded At that time and this is uh fourth and fifth century BC that man's development that is human development was similar to that of the chicken. The writings of Aristotle and Galen and other scientists dominate the early part of the of our historical record. And from the time of Galen around 200 AD until

the 16th century, no major advances in our knowledge of embryology were recorded in the literature of western science. This is mainly because these kind of studies Were forbidden in those very dark ages. Consequently, as far as we know, until the revelations in the Quran, man was relatively ignorant about his reproduction and development. It was not until the invention of the microscope in the 17th century that any significantly new information was added to the field of embryology. Uh before this uh time the fetus was said to develop from a quagulum of human uh blood and and

the seed. There's Really no idea of how we developed. But in the days of Aristotle, they believed as Shik Mustafa Ahmed said that menstrual blood was the uh thought to give rise to the embryo and that the uh they really didn't know anything about spermatzoa or sperms. But when the uh microscope was uh discovered, if we could have that first uh slide. Now these early microscopes were very primitive by uh our standards today. Uh this first slide I don't know whe they're going to Can you see those? Well that that's a picture of Aristotle there.

Uh one of the earliest writers in in human embryology. Maybe the microscope could come on. Yeah. This is the microscope that was invented by Luen Hook uh in 1694. And this is a very uh crude microscope. As you can see, the object, whatever it was you were looking at, was Put on the end of a needle point. And uh there was a small magnifying glass and you would look at this but uh it didn't give very uh uh much magnification be equivalent to what you would get now if you used a magnifying glass. So it

wouldn't give very much uh enlargements. So this is the the state of of knowledge uh in the 17th century and uh it would not be possible for them to uh see the uh early stages of human development even at that time. Now when they did see what they thought was a sperm, uh they thought that this sperm and if we could just have they they visualized this sperm with a little imagination that inside that sperm or male germ cell was a little human being and all it needed was for it to be implanted in the

female and in the environment of the mother's uterus. This would stimulate this little person to start uh developing. And so the real role of the uh female then was to give This uh little embryo a place to develop and to stimulate it. Now I should say in fairness there were others who believed uh that the female ovary the oytes or eggs they contained the little human being. So there was two groups. One said the little human being was in a sperm. Others said it was in the oasite or egg and that that when they uh

started to develop then this little person just got bigger. So that shows you what our knowledge was like in the 17th century. The fact that the sperm and the oam were necessary for conception was not known until the 18th century uh when there were further refinement refinements in our optical instruments and microscopes were better developed and so on and so they were actually able to see the uh sperm in the egg and realize then uh that they actually came together in a process which was called u fertilization. Now later in the development in embryology uh

they Developed the idea of stages uh and the first attempts to arrange human embryos in stages were made towards the end of the 19th century and these efforts continued during the early part of the 20th century. In 1914 uh Dr. Maul in this country arranged 266 human embryos in a series of stages. 28 years later Dr. Streer also of the United States classified human embryos in 23 stages which he called developmental Horizons. Now Streer's classifications were used worldwide until 1973 when Dr. Ronan O'Reilly who's at University of San Diego developed a more detailed system for

classifying human embryos particularly during the first three weeks of development. Now these CargI stages that is named after the Cariegi Institute of Embryology have received international approval and are based on v various uh developmental events and morphological Criteria. And these uh timets of human development are from my book which I developed uh in about 1970 uh based on the Cariegi stages of human development. And uh at this time when I did these uh stages I had no uh awareness that there was anything about human development in the uh Quran. So uh it's only then in

the last uh uh 15 to 20 years that we've had a good knowledge of the stages of human Development. Now this develop knowledge has increased rapidly in the last few years. Now a ma major difficulty in the classification of terminology is the fact that the shape of the embryo is continuously changing. The principles for nomenclature and for uh terminology for descriptive embryology are the terms that are applied to a particular development which would be descriptive of what the embryo really looks like. There should also be full agreement Between the term uh and the nature of

the development and events occurring at that stage. In order to avoid confusion, each term should define a stage which has a clear beginning and an end as is possible in order to avoid any overlap between stages or in the other hand to avoid any gaps between one stage and another. Now uh it was about this time that I began to study the Quran and to look at verses referring to Embryology. So I found that there was a a large terminology in the Quran referring to human development. Now I say until uh recently it was not

known that this holy book of the Muslims uh and the Sunnah or hadith the teachings of Muhammad contain many citations referring to the stages of human development. Until recently these statements were not clearly understood since they referred to details in development which were not Scientifically which were scientifically unknown in earlier times. In fact, the Islamic system for classifying human embryos is amazingly uh is amazing since it was recorded in the 7th century AD. Although Aristotle, as I mentioned before, the founder of the science of embryology realized that chick embryo was developed in stages from uh

hen's eggs in the 4th century. He did not give any details about these stages. Also, the early human embryo is of such A minute size that uh detailed studies would have been impossible without the microscope. Uh in the very early stages of human development, the first few days, uh it's so small that you could just barely see it. Uh in other words, it's about the size of a period at the end of a sentence and you could realize how without our modern microscopes, you would not be able to see any of those details of the

early stages. Now, as far as we know from the History history of embryology, little was known about the staging and classification of human embryos until the last 100 years as as I've just mentioned. Moreover, the Quranic terminology fulfills the principles for nomenclature and terminology. For this reason, the descriptions of human embryos in the Quran cannot be based on scientific knowledge in the 7th century. The only reasonable conclusion that is that these descriptions were revealed to Muhammad uh peace be upon him by God. He could not have known such details because he was an illiterate man.

He was not a scientist or an embryology and he did not have scientific training. Now in the following passages from the Quran, we introduced the concept of stages in human development. And uh this uh first verse was the first one that was shown to me. Uh and uh you can read that uh there. Uh God created man from a quintessence Of clay. Uh he then uh placed him in as a nutvah, a droplet in a place of uh settlement firmly fixed. Then we make the nutvah into an alaka, a leech-like structure. And then uh he

changed the alaka into a mudka, a chewed like substance. Uh then we made out of that muda uh isam I can't read too well here skeleton and then we clothed the bones with muscles. Uh then we caused him to grow and then we came into uh Bone into being and attain the definitive human form. Uh so blessed be God uh the best to create. This is from one of the suras. So uh and uh we have the next one I believe that shows this is the Islamic. Now this are the stages that uh we found

in the Quran and it's taken uh a lot of study and discussion to uh arrive at the meaning of these stages. The first one is the nut or the drop stage and then the the second is the clack or shaping Stage and then the nasha or the growth stage. Now the proposed system is clear. It's comprehensive and conforms with uh present embryological uh knowledge. uh and it's our hope that this terminology can be introduced internationally. But if uh if if nothing more at least the Muslim uh science students uh can realize that uh the stages

that we talk about uh in our embryology textbooks uh are are the same. It's just that they have different Names. Now the uh principles for the terminology then that they be descriptive of appearance and that they re reflect the processes occurring and that they be uh avoid ambiguous uh beginning and an end. In other words, they should be clear as to what these stages uh refer to and uh this was the actually the first verse that was ever read to me when I was in QR or in Saudi Arabia. And I'd never uh I knew

that the Quran existed, but I'd never uh read it uh before. And uh when they asked me what this uh verse uh meant to me, I said, well, it was obvious. It makes you in the womb, wombs of your mother, which is the uterus. Of course, womb is simply uh English translation of the Latin uterus. Uh in your mothers in stages. So here is talking about stages which is similar to what uh Hypocrates And Aristotle had talked about one after another in three veils of darkness. Uh then I was asked what this three veils of

darkness might be and uh it occurred to me uh that uh it might be as I've indicated here in these slides that the first veil of darkness around this developing human would probably be the anterior abdominal wall that is the skin muscles and so on around the uh mother forming the wall anterior wall of the mother's abdomen. two I thought would be The wall of the uterus, the the uh organ which contains the embryo and then inside that uterus we have other membranes which we call the amnon and the coron and we combine that because

they fuse together. We call it the amnocorionic membrane. Now, this was my initial interpretation of this and I've heard many different other interpretation of what these veils of darkness are and I don't suppose we will ever know exactly what those that Adverse meant. Uh but this interpretation has been accepted by uh some of the prominent embryologists around the world and I have invited my friends uh as mentioned Dr. Johnson from Jefferson Medical College, Dr. Brasad from Winnipeg, Dr. Edwards from Cambridge who some of you remember Steto and Edwards. Dr. Edwards were the first ones to

produce a baby in vitro and little Louise Brown uh was the first one and Dr. uh Edwards agreed with our Interpretations uh of this. So uh and then we went on and study other verses. Uh well this this uh shows the description of the mother and the relationship the mother to the conceptus. Conceptus is simply the uh developing embryo plus the membranes that are around it. Uh and uh that is the uh nutva uh is the related to the is the conceptus and uh these other stages referring to the uterus and so on. These Are

all terms that are in the Quran. We then uh placed him as a nut or a drop in a place of settlement firmly fixed. Uh when I was asked what this would mean, I obviously thought of the uh settlement or implantation of the uh early human embryo which we call a blastoyst into the uh lining of the uh uterus. Uh the uh Nutva uh stage involves the sperm and the OAM and their union to form the fertilized zygote. Uh the cell division to form the Blastoyst and the implantation into the uterus. Now the shaping stage

is further divided into alica as I mentioned mudka islam and lam stages. During the latter part of this stage, the embryo also develops a human appearance and under goes a straightening of its bodily form. The growth stage includes what is now known as the fetal uh period of human development involves modification in the bodily proportions, the development of the individual appearances or features And the growth and refinement of the various organ stages. Now we look at the Nutva stage which is the initial stage which is what in ordinary embryology we would call the zygote. Uh

the word nutva means a small amount of fluid or a drop of it. As the first stage called the nut, it includes five phases or substages which involve the mixing of male and female germinal fluids, fertilization, implantation and early cell division. And so we'll deal then With the phases of the nutvah. The first is the manny. It's been uh discovered that the uh first stage is formed from a part of the male fluid that is the nut of the father which includes the sperm and part of the female fluid fluid which is the nut of

the mother which includes the oam. Now the Arabic term mani is used mainly to describe the sperm although it is also used to describe both the sperm and the oam. During the fertilization Process the male fluid travels from the vagina uh up through the uterus and meets the female fluid in the uterine tube or ovoduct or as some people call it the fallopian tube. According to the Islamic statements, fertilization does not occur from all of the fluids from the male and the female, but from a minute portion of them. As the Quran states, was he

not a drop of germinal fluid? Mani emitted and mani here refers to the sperm and the oam. Other Components of the male and female fluids uh aid in the fertilization process. The semen that is the mixture of of sperms and fluids contain uh hormones called prostaglandins which induce the uterine contractions and they may aid in the transport of the sperm to the fertilization site. Important components of the male of the female fluid also contribute to this process. During the female fertile phase of the woman's menstrual cycle, the cervical mucus, Which is otherwise fairly impervious to

sperm, becomes clear and gel-like through a realignment of its molecules and allows the sperms to pass. Enzymes secreted by the linings of the uterus and the ovducts capacitate that is they remove a a covering from the sperm but which are called glyoproteins and this enables it to then participate in fertilization. Sperms are unable to fertilize ova unless they've been capacitated. Additionally, enzymes are Secreted by the ovduct which loosen the follicular cells surrounding the OAM and expose its protective membrane to the sperm. The fact that the fluids of the male and the female are involved with

fertilization was mentioned in the following hadith. When the prophet peace be upon him was asked by a Jewish person, "Oh Muhammad, what is man created from?" The prophet answered, "Oh Jew, he is created from both, from the fluid of the man and The fluid of the woman." Thus the word nuf hadith is a very comprehensive term. Now the next term is called sula. Uh this refers to the selection from the male and the female fluids as the following passage mentions. not from all uh fluid is the offspring uh created. And when I was uh asked

uh about this, I explained that uh that uh when we develop, we only develop from a small portion. Uh thus uh the creation From both fluids occurs through a special selection. The creanic term for this selection is sula which means in Arabic gentle extraction from fluid. It is now known that both the OAM and the sperm are gently extracted from their environments in the process of fertilization. The OAM is selected from a long stream of follicular fluid follicular fluid while one sperm out of millions is selected from the seminal fluid. The first sperm which touches

the Cell membrane of the OAM enters easily but immediately afterwards a rapid change occurs in the cell membrane selecting that sperm only and all other spoon sperms are locked out. Now talk again about the nutva or nut ama. The fertilized o or zygote as we call it takes the form of a drop uh or a nut amled fluid. As God says in the Quran, we created man from a do a drop of mingled fluid. That is the nut amad. An important point with regard to this phrase is the fact that nutva is a singular noun

while amsha is a plural modifying adjective. According to the conventional rules of grammar, singular nouns are normally modified by singular adjectives and thus the term nut amad was a mystery to early scholars. However, this peculiarity in the language can now be explained since we now know that the zygote remains singular as a nutba while internally the Chromosomes and other contributions from the sperm and oven form a plural mixture described as amshad. Therefore, from a scientific point of view, hamshad is entirely accurate as a plural adjective modifying the singular nutba which is really a multifaceted entity,

single entity. This stage continues in development maintaining the shape of the nut but dividing it into smaller and small smaller cells called blastoirs uh until about 4 days later it forms a Spherical mass of cells known as a morula. 5 days after fertilization, the nut then forms a blastoyst as the moralous cells separate into two parts. During this time, the term amsha uh very appropriately applies to the nut in all of its developments since it continues to be a multifaceted entity. Uh the next stage is called takir. In the early formation of the nut ama,

the chromosomes form from both Parents and they mix and uh that is what gives rise to the uh human embryo. This genetic mixture will determine the characteristics of the child as well well as the child's sex. As the Quran mentions, he created him from Nutva and immediately laid down the plan or the program of his future development. He created him uh then uh agrees completely with our understanding. We know that the chromosomes and the mother and the Father unite at fertilization and that we are then a mixture of the chromosomes of our mothers and and

fathers and this is all determined uh at this very early stage of Nutva and uh we didn't understand that until uh probably about uh in the 1920s. Now the last stage of this uh early development is called hearth. In the last phase of the nut ama the blastoyst implants into the endometrium or the uh lining of the uterus. Uh this Passage uh from the Quran states your wives are a tilth or a hearth unto you. So approach your tilth when or how you will. Uh tilth or hearth refers to cultivation of the soil. So it's

clear that an understanding of the lining of the uterus or what we call the endometrium was very much like soil that when the blastoyst implants it gets its nourishment from the mother's blood just as a plant roots of a plant get its nourishment uh from the Soil. The last step of the nut stage begins with implantation of the blast assist and is called the hearth phase. The the Quran considers this process analogous to the cultivation of the soil and the lining of the uterus like soil in which the seed develops. Indeed, the blastoyst embeds and

roots itself into the endometrium with cells which will eventually form the placenta just as the seed embeds itself in the soil. Uh this uh shows the uterus at the top And the red area which is blown up in the bottom is the lining of the endometrium of the uterus into which the blastoyst or early human embryo implants and it gets its nourishment from those uh uh blood vessels uh and mother's blood which carries the oxygen and nutrient substances uh to it and and the the comparison then to uh a seed developing in the soil is

a very uh accurate one. So that the uh development and the Structural changes which occur during the NUVA stage are virtually impossible to detect without a mic microscope due to the minute size of the uh NUVA. And if we look at the next uh pictures there I guess is that the end of that portion. Uh so this is the uh first part of my uh presentation and uh we'll have an opportunity for you to ask questions. Thank you very [Applause] much. And next we'll deal with the Shaping stage which is called caulk. K h a

l q. uh and uh the first part of that is the alaka stage. The this second or shaping stage begins as the alaka which is an Arabic word meaning a leech. And when I was first asked about this, did the human embryo look like a leech? And when I thought about this for a few minutes, I realized that it uh resembled the leech very closely. As you will uh See, during the early stage, the embryo loses its rounded shape and elongates until it takes the shape of a leech. And this uh picture here uh I

went over to our library and got out a book on leeches and had my artist draw that exactly from the textbook showing a leech. And here is a a human embryo uh here and they're on the 21 22 days. And I think you have to agree that they look very much alike. In fact, you see that the leech has segments just like a worm And the human embryo has uh has these same segments. In fact, we still have a remnant of those segments in our bodies. If any of you have ever had shingles, ever heard

of anyone having shingles, you always get the eruptions and and bands across the area that's infected. And those bands are the remnants of those segments. So, this is uh what I believe to be the the leech-like appearance of the human embryo. Uh the uh and I believe in my Descriptions in my book, I talk about it having a leech-like appearance. The similarity between the the embryo and a leech is amazing. The embryo is attached to the wall of the coronionic sack which is attached by corionic villi to the endometrium or lining of the uterus. Uh

and so the human embryo is attached to the lining of the uterus just like a leech will attach to your skin. I don't know whether you have leeches here or not but We have certain lakes in Canada. If you go in swimming these leeches will attach to your skin and suck the blood. So the analogy there is is quite uh uh amazing. uh initially the embryo acquires a primitive circulatory and nervous system during this early stage. Thus the term alica refers to the leech-like external appearance of the embryo as a well as well as to

its clinging relationship to the uterus and is an appropriately descriptive term for this stage. Another Meaning mentioned by the interpreters for alica is similar to a blood clot. Uh and and the external appearance of the embryo during this phase is similar to that of blood due to the appearance of the primitive heart and the cardiovascular system. If you look at the picture at the bottom shows a an embryo of about 22 or 23 days and uh the bottom is the yolk sack and the embryo is the part at the top and you see all these

blood vessels. And if you were to See an embryo at that stage, and I should say that most embryos uh will undergo spontaneous abortion at about this stage. In other words, when they're about 2 or 3 weeks old, uh they will often spontaneously abort. That means that they just are expelled from the mother's uterus without known cause. Although we've done a lot of studies on this and find that many of them have very abnormal chromosomes and they couldn't have survived if they had Lived. So uh as we used to so say in the old days

this was God's way of ridding uh the body of something that was very abnormal. But anyway, we do know that they are aboard at this early stage and they do look like a clot of blood because when they pull away from the uterus, then you have all these uh exposed uh blood vessels which have the bloody appearance. So this explains one interpretation for Alica as a blood clot. I prefer the the one being a Leech-like structure. Uh now the blood does not circulate until the end of the third week but on the 21st day the

heart of the embryo connects with blood vessels in the embryo with a connecting stock in the coron and the blood starts to circulate as you you could see in this diagram in the bottom. Thus the embryo takes the appearance of a blood clot even though its blood is fluid and these features incorporate the other meaning of a blood Clot for the alica phase. Now the next stage is the mudga stage. And again when I was asked what this meant, it says uh I it reminded me of an embryo at this stage. And uh when I

was told that the mudka meant a chewed substance, I thought of a the embryo here. You see these little beadlike structures which we call somites. They are beginning of what will be the vertebrae or the backbone. And uh I suggested that this chewed stage uh Could be uh refer referring to these uh uh sommites which have the appearance of of a chewed substance if you take as I did at that time took a piece of gum and and bit into it and you're left with these teeth marks which look very much uh like this. So

uh this stage the muda stage occurs at about 26 to 27 days and we call that the somite period in descriptive embryology. Uh the transformation from the alica to the mudka is very rapid and during the Last day or two of the alakica stage the embryo is beginning to develop some of the characteristics of the mudka that is the somites begin to appear. The word mudga means a piece of substance which has been chewed and is used to describe this next phase of embriotic development. It uh should apply uh with the shape of a substance

that the teeth have chewed. In fact, the appropriateness of this term mudka has been indicated in modern embryology. It Has been termed that after the formation of the embryo in the placenta, this stage, the embryo receives its nutrients and energy thereby rapidly increasing the growth process. The bodily masses called sommites from which the bones and the muscle will form start to appear. During the multitude of beadlike structures or somites that are present, the embryo has the appearance of a substance that have been been imprinted by teeth. The processes of this period Can be recognized in

the following points. First, the appearance of the sommites or the imprints changes constantly. And just as the teeth imprints change on a substance with each act of chewing, the embryo changes its overall shape but the structure derived from the somites remain. And secondly, the embryo turns in its position due to the modifications in its center of gravity with the new tissue formation similar to the turning of a substance With chewing. And third, just as a chewed substance becomes curled before being swallowed, so does the back of the embryo become curved. And for as the sommites

form the internal features of the embryo in the muda stage are partly differentiated into organ anlaga that means the beginning of structures and partly undifferentiated. And this description is also uh stated in the Quran. This is a later stage of mudga. You can see the tail that we all had at that stage. And this little uh flipper-l like structure is what's going to be your your upper limb. Uh and so uh this is the mudka stage. Next slide. Uh then out of the chewed-like substance uh partly differentiated and partly undifferiated. And when I was asked

what this uh u surah meant or well said it's clear to me that an embryo at that stage uh is only partly differentiated. In other words, some of the organs like the Early development of the eye and the ear and the heart. Some parts are well differentiated, others are poorly differentiated and some are uh undifferiated and so we have the this mixture which agrees exactly uh with this particular uh syrup. Thus the term mudga is very meaningful since the embryo is a lump of irregularly shaped tissue at this stage and a creation of systems is

occurring while the overall process is incomplete. Some of the Organs will form in the mudga stage and some will form in later stages. Now the next stage is called the isam stage. This subsequent stage uh phase of development is referred to as isam which means bones and the fetus does indeed acquire a cartilagynous skeleton after the mudka stage. Those of you that have studied embryology realize that first of all you have what we call misenchymal bones made out of connective tissue. Then they Become cartilagynous and then they become oified and become bones solid bones. Formation

of the bone does not begin uniformly throughout the body. Rather, there is a sequent sequential appearance of bony tissue. In recent decades, the process of osteogenesis in the human embryo has been reasonably well documented. Bone development in the limb limbs commences in the embryionic limb buds from these misenymal or connective tissue cells. Primary Oification centers appear in the femur during the fifth week. The femur is your thigh bone. uh and in the sternum, breast bone and the magilla, jaw during 8 to nine weeks. The timing of the exam phase has been mentioned in the following

hadith. These simply show these various stages when at this stage the bones in the limb would be cartilagynous. Same here. you're starting to get little uh indications of The uh bones uh developing. And then this hadith says when 42 nights have passed from the time of the nut, that is the time of conception, Allah sends an angel to it who shapes it and makes its ears, eyes, skin, muscles, and bones. In the early fa part of this phase, the embryo takes on a human appearance. Tazwir adami and the hadith describes this with the word shapes.

Before the 42nd day, it is difficult to to Distinguish the human embryo from the embryos of many animals. But at this stage, it becomes clearly distinguishable in its appearance. uh I couldn't tell a mouse embryo from a human embryo or rabbit embryo in those very early stages. So as this hadith is making clear is that after this uh 40th day when the angel uh sends an angel to it with shapes and so on that it takes on its human characteristics. Accompanying this Development is a straightening of the embryo described by the word sawa. During this

period, the embryo becomes more erect and acquires a more evenly rounded body. Some of the generalized cells of the embryo begin to differentiate into various lines and modify into different functional moyes. This process results in straightening and the formation of organs necessary for viability. As the Quran describes when God created you then and The word fa means then made you even and straight saw and then fa again modified you had a lock and uh so on according to uh the table and is that on the slide the table showing the different stages. Here's here's the

table which you're referring to. You can see the stages listed the uh along the side here and uh you have the shaping stage and so on. These are all correlated with the age and days and the uh actual size of the Uh embryo. According to this table which compares the three ayat on the stages of development, it is apparent that the isam stage corresponds with the straightening stage. The word sawak in the Quranic statement indicates the following. First to straighten the position of the body from a bent position and to also to make uneven things

leveled. The embryo at the seventh week has a bent back thus taking The shape of the letter C during the muda stage. In the isam stage, the bending position is straightened and the surface becomes more even due to the disappearance of prominences and depressions. Now the lam stage although precursor cells which we call my blast or early muscle cells are present adjacent to the developing bones differentiation into skeletal muscle attachments appears after the oification process in the shaft and the ends of the Bones. I was asked many times did the bones be appear before the

muscles? Well they certainly do. If you want to be logical about it, you wouldn't have muscles until you had something to attach them to. So you have bones and then the muscles. And this is clearly stated in the Quran that the bones appear first. A major developmental landmark during the eighth week is the lamb stage which describes the myiogenesis that is the formation of Muscles uh which marks the development of the definitive muscles in the trunk and the limbs and the beginning of movement. The muscles take their position around the bones that is clothing the

bones and continue the process of straightening and smoothing as we are. In other words, as the muscles develop, they straighten the embryo up which uh the straightening and smoothing which began in the isam stage. It is now known that the gonads that is The developing sex glands differentiate into testes and ovaries at this time that is during the eighth week and the Quran refers to this development as well. Now the growth stage or the nasha stage uh the lone stage represents the end of the embryionic period. We say that the embryionic period ends at the

end of the eighth week and then it becomes the fetal period. So here in this terminology the lamb stage represents The end of the embryionic period. In other words the end of the eth week during which much of the organogenesis or the development of the organ occurs. The Quran uses the word, how do we pronounce it? Hanga. Yeah. Okay. [Applause] Which translated means made or changed. Okay. In referring to all the embryionic stages. Galacta. Is that how we say it? I can't get my tongue around that one. Halakna. Halakna okay indicates that the new organized

tissues are being formed in these stages. However, with the ninth week, the period of fetal development, hasha, nasha begins. The Quran clearly distinguishes the beginning of this period by using the word hashanu nafu in the following statement. Then we Anasha and Nafu cause him to grow and come into being and attain the definitive human form. Anasha nahu means to initiate to Grow and develop and to rise and increase. The interpreters of the Quran uh understood the following meanings for the Quranic passage. Development of the fetus into a creature capable of speaking, hearing and seeing. Breathing

the spirit into the fetus and find the characteristics of the nausea stage. The following characteristics of the nasa stage are rapid growth and development. And this uh again this chart is from my book. As You can see in the early stages the 9th week, 12th and so on, there's very little uh growth occurring there uh the organs are developing rapidly and then as you see from from on from the 12th week on there's very rapid development and these uh uh fetuses are drawn to exact scales. So that uh you can see that the the development

is is is very rapid. So it's a period of rapid growth and development which directly applies with the meaning of nasha is explained Directly after the lom stage that is the ninth week until the 12th week. The fetus grows slowly and then the growth becomes very rapid. There's also a change in the nature of the fetus and the development of of its organs. The skeleton develops from soft cartilagynous bones to more solid calcified bones and by the time of 12 weeks gestation. Centers of oification are present in most bones. The limbs become differentiated and Nails

can be detected on the fingers and toes. The proportional sizes of the head, body and limbs change and their relative proportions become more balanced particularly between the 9th and 12th weeks. Lanugo hair that's very fine hair that uh the fetuses have and newborn babies have the same the proportional size of the head the body and limbs change and uh this hair appears on the skin which is fully differentiated uh into the epidermis and Hypodermis by the 12th week. The external genitalia become begin to differentiate in the ninth week and also the testes begin their descent

and the internal genitalia uh develop. At this stage in the 12th week, a male fetus can be distinguished from a female on the basis of its external genitalia. Voluntary and smooth musc muscature are established. Fetuses at this stage of development reveal or mimic spontaneous movements and reflex muscular Contractions can be elicited by an external stimulus. In general, the overall physiological development of the nervous system parallels the maturation of the brain and the spinal cord. Primitive and instinctive responses such as sucking and grasping are subcortical functions and appear much later. Nevertheless, this stage of development represents

an important transitional landmark for the fetus because it is reasonably well-coordinated reflexes and Movements which can be progressively vigorous in time. And I should say that we can study these stages very easily now in in developing humans because with the techniques of ultrasound and also fettoscopy, you can actually watch these uh fetuses uh moving and you can see that some of them will even begin to suck their thumbs before they're born. Other delicate and subtle developments occur in the fetus which has changed from its first creation the embryo to Another one the fetus as the

Quran has described. The third point is that there's extensive and continued development of organ systems. The embryionic period which ends with the l stage is characterized by the gradual appearance of organs. The fetal period which follows is characterized by the preparation of the organ systems to perform their functions. Because soon as the baby is born, it must be able to breathe on its own. It must be able to Its heart must be able to circulate and all the other organs have to be functional. The fetal period which follows is characterized then by the preparation of

these organ systems to perform their functions. As the interpreters mentioned, this is the meaning of the QRanic phrase come into being and attain the definitive form that is a human form. And thus the fetus is made into a creature capable of speaking, hearing and seeing. The fourth Part is the acquisition of a soul. And according to the Islamic information, the soul comes to the embryo sometime after the 40 to the 45 days in development as mentioned in the hadith related by Abdullah Masoud. uh the prophet peace be upon him the truthful and trusted told us

in every one of you all components of your creation are collected together in your mother's womb by 40 days and in that is an alaka like that then is a mudka like That then God sends an angel ordered with four instructions he's told to record his the human being now developing deeds his provision future benefits whether he will be miserable or happy and then the spirit is breathed then to him that is the soul is acquired. The death indicates that there is some delay after the seventh week according to the use of the word thuma.

Embryological studies have not determined the acquisition of a soul to Which the Quranic commentators referred. The nature of the soul is generally outside the realm of experimental science and is essentially unknown at this time to mankind. As God says in the Quran, they ask thee concerning the spirit. Say, the spirit comes by command of my lord of knowledge. It is only a little that is communicated to you. Oh men. However, what do we know? However, what we do know is that there is a difference between life and the soul. Although the nature of both is

a mystery, a creature, a creature with a soul has self-awareness. On the other hand, the sperm and the are alive since without life they would be unable to participate in fertilization. When the fetus is capable of moving voluntarily from his or her own desire as opposed to moving reflexually, this could be taken as evidence that is that he has acquired a soul. During the 10th week of development, for example, the fetus Exhibits spontaneous movements and moves in response to stimuli. While these movements may reflect primitive neurological reflexes and do not present conclusive evidence of the

presence of a soul, they do indicate that the soul is probably acquired near this time and this would be in agreement with the time frame presented in the Islamic statements. Now the word the word uh an sha nahu as it is used in the Quran covers the most apparent external and Internal developments and changes in features in this stage of human development. The three meanings given for nasha comprehensively apply to this stage to initiate applies with the initiation of the functioning of various organ systems. Forget for example the kidneys begin to form urine blood cells

begin to form in the bone marrow and the hair follicles first appear in the 10th week and so on to grow and develop applies with the rapid growth and the Extensive development of all the organ systems of the body which occurs during this stage and to rise and increase applies with the very uh rapid increase beginning in the 12th week in the length and the weight of the fetus. Therefore, the term nasha appropriately and accurately applies to the fetal period of development. And and number seven, the timing of the developmental events. Not only is the

sequencing of the embryionic And fetal developments indicated by the order in which they are mentioned in the Quran, but also the timing of these events is indicated by the use of the conjunctive spa which means then with a little delay and thuma which means then with some delay. The occurrences aa and thuma both of which are translated as then are as follows. We God created man from a quintessence of clay. We then thuma placed him as a nut, a drop in a place of settlement firmly fixed. Then Thuma we made the nut into an alica

leech-like structure. And then fa we changed the alaka into a mudka chewed-like substance. Then thaw we made out of that mudka isam or skeleton or bones. Then fa we clothed the skeleton with lamb muscles and flesh. Then we caused him to grow and come into being and attain the definitive form human form. So blessed be God the best uh to create. The use of thma then indicates that there is a delay between the Following events. First the nutba stage developing into the alaka first stage of the shaping stage. LOM is the last stage of the

shaping kok stage until the development of nasha the fetal period. During the implantation or hearth phase of the Nutva stage, there is a slow rate of development until the uh alica stage. Takes about a week from the beginning of the hearth that is the day six uh for the connecting stock to form day 14 such as the embryo becomes attached and Hanging and it takes about 10 days for the noticord to begin development on the day 16 in order for the embryo to take on the appearance of a leech or an elica. Thus there's some

delay in the formation of the alakica stage. A lot of this is related to uh it developing blood vessels to inquire to acquire nourishment from the mother. The nasha or fetal stage can be considered as being in the ninth week but is delayed in the expression of all Its characteristics until later. For example, the peri the period between the beginning of the 9th week and the end of the 11th week is a period of relatively slow growth and it is not until the 12th week that the rapid growth indicated by anasha nahu begins. Additionally, the

initiation of development of certain organ systems occurs after the 8th week or after the l stage but the changes in these organs become more apparent after the 11th week. Thus there is a delay Until the 12th week for the full expression of nacha and the word puma accurately indicates this delay. The word fa indicates that the following stages occur directly after one another. Alakica changing to mudka mudka changing to isam changing to l. The embryo of 24 to 25 days is the end of the alakica stage and it makes a direct change into the mudga

stage at 26 to 27 days. The muda stage lasts until the sixth week and then changes directly into the xan By the beginning of the seventh week since the skeleton begins its appearance at that time. The alarm stage follows in the eighth week immediately after the zan stage since the muscle precursor cells begin their development into muscle as soon as the bone is formed and the muscles can come become attached. Thus the word fa is used in the Quran to accurately and strongly indicate that these developments follow one another immediately with no Delay. Now the

conclusions of this uh study are that the terms which been used in the Quran are very descriptive of development developments which occur in the various stages and they describe these events in their chronological order. Morphological changes that occur with development in each stage are also accurately described by the use of these terms. Because the staging of human embryos is complex going through a continuous pro process of change during Development, it is proposed that a new system of classification could be developed using the terms mentioned in the Quran and Sunna. The proposed system is simple, comprehensive,

and conforms with present embryological knowledge. the facts about human development that could not have been known by Muhammad peace be upon him in the 7th century because most of them were not discovered until the 20th century. Muslims and others are justified in concluding that These facts could only have been revealed to Muhammad peace be upon him by God who knows all about us not only about who how we develop but how we live and function. Thank you very much. [Applause] Thank you Dr. Moore. I believe as a listener that Dr. Moore has given us the

best abridgement, best possible arbridgement between the physical and the metaphysical, the spiritual and the Physical do. I came to this conclusion. I promised you that you might change your minds about the possibility of having relationship between religion and science. Now uh to further our understanding about the subject we open the uh questions and answers for Dr. Moore. You would like to short your time. I know you're young but [Music] I will uh you can you can ask me any question you like of embryology what the Quran has mentioned um when were you first notified and

after the fact you have seen how did it affect you in your personal life and another question follow that have you become Muslim or have you accepted Islam why and why not thank you that's the question I've been asked of course hundreds of times and I it's a very logical question and I'll give you the same answer that I gave in Saudi Arabia, that I gave in Toronto, that I gave in Sudbury a couple of weeks ago and that I give anywhere I go and that is that I was raised in a Christian family. My

father was a was a Presbyterian minister uh and uh he uh taught me to respect all religions and uh he uh said that all those who believe and worship God uh just have a different way of doing it. So I have no difficulty uh in uh understanding that we we all worship the same God. Now it would be Different if I didn't have a strong faith of my own. In other words, if I had uh been a an agnostic and didn't believe strongly in God that obviously I would have probably accepted your religion. But as

I was raised and as a a Christian and and believe as you do that uh uh Muhammad was a was a messenger of God just as Jesus was a messenger uh each bringing messages from God. So I didn't find it difficult when I was told about the Quran and that these were Revelations from my God from God. It didn't uh it wasn't difficult for me because my own father made it very clear to me that he was uh called by God to be uh a minister to go and and and talk about God uh to

the people. So uh in an indirect way, maybe God is telling me that this is the right thing for me to do to uh help explain your holy book uh to you. Now, your scientific colleagues can do this just as well as I can if they have an understanding of Embryology, but I've always said that it's uh probably mean more uh as a non-Muslim for me to tell people around the world that I believe that what is recorded in the Quran is accurate according to our present knowledge. And uh as I say, I'm sincere in

what I say is that we just didn't have this knowledge. And some of this knowledge about the genes and the chromosomes has only come to us in the last 10 and 15 years when I was a student 25 or 30 Years ago. We didn't have a lot of the knowledge we have now. And there are a lot of things in the Quran that were I was asked questions about and I said I don't understand it. And I think that maybe in another hundred years and I won't be here but some of those verses if you

ask them to the embryologists of that day they will say sure that is what this means. So that to answer your question very simply I don't feel it's necessary for me to become a Muslim to Worship God. I've done that for all of my 60 years. And uh if anything though uh understanding this just uh shows me that uh God has a great influence in this uh in this uh world. That that's the best that I can answer that for you. Uh and I have seen some of my colleagues who've been so impressed by what

they have read in the Quran and so on that they have certainly there have been a few cases where they have converted and that's fine. And uh If I never so motivated, I would do the same. But I've been have a strong uh belief uh just happens to be a little different way of worshiping God than yours. But uh we're all worshiping the same God, I like to think, and that if we can work together, we'll have a much happier world. Thank you. Intend that it is during the 10th week um when the soul is

present in the embryo. Would this mean then that um the termination of pregnancy is haram or forbidden only When done during this during or after this period or is there such thing as a degree of haram depending on when abortion is done? uh in in cases where we uh detect severe chromosomal abnormalities and you can detect this now at about 6 weeks I think it was early because you can do what we call corionic villi sampling those little villi that you saw in there you can go in and with a special instrument you can pull

off some of these corionic Villi you can culture them and you can determine if they are uh have severe chromosomal abnormalities and if they do have that uh you can determine then that they have no chance at survival. If they have for example what we call tricom 13 where they have an extra 13 chromosome or they have tricom 18 another 18 chromosome those children cannot possibly survive and there are those who see nothing wrong if you detect that say at 5 or 6 weeks of then inducing an Abortion. Uh I personally don't have any difficulty

with that when when when it's done very early that is uh sort 6 7 weeks. Uh but I certainly have uh strong feelings about abortions that are done even as late as 13 and 14 weeks which is the common common time in Japan. They're at the present time able to abort up to 24 weeks which you know is a viable fetus and I find that just unacceptable. And in fact, I had an interview with uh a newspaper reporter And he wanted to know my view and I didn't. I told him very clearly that I thought

this was was wrong and they're thinking of changing their law uh to bring it back to 20 weeks. I still think that is uh is too too late uh in pregnancy. But I think that uh I don't know exactly what the Muslim view would but my feeling is that if uh if the it was aborted uh in those early very early stages before it developed a soul as they would say then then it it might be Considered all right. But again these things are personal decisions which people have to make on the basis of discussions

with their with their doctor and with their religious people to determine it. And uh my students always ask me, "What would you have done?" Well, fortunately, I never had that problem. We had five normal children. And uh but how could you how that's a hypothetical question, but I can often say that knowing what I know now, I Don't think that uh either of us would have uh considered that the right thing to do. It's a very personal thing. And uh my my own children happen to feel the same way. I don't know why. Maybe it's

my influence. I hope I would like to know from Dr. Mur um how close the other biblical scriptures or any other religious books how close do they get to this issue of human reproduction. Um again I'm I'm uh not completely familiar with the whole of The New Testament which I probably should be. uh although I certainly read it a lot when I was a young person but I have my friends uh in fact one of my nephews who's a clergyman and he's assured me that there's nothing in the old or the new testament other than

vague uh references but nothing uh close to what we have here uh because I have put this in both of my embryology books which are used around the world the bigger book is in seven languages Legally and one illegally. Uh there so they're used around the world. I get letters from people saying uh this is there are these references in in our holy books too and those of you who have seen the latest edition in fairness. I did quote from uh uh the Hindu religion where they make some statements about early development but again it's

back uh similar to what uh the early views we had in the in the 15th and 16th century. So Uh I think that uh through my contacts everyone has scanned their own holy books and I can assure you that if there was anything there that was as good or better they would be telling me about it because they would want to get international recognition for it. U so uh I have been asked why I put that information in my historical section. And I said, "Well, I think it's a part of the history of embryology, and

although it's been lost to most people For years, I think it's important that it be recorded there." Uh, for those of you that wish more information on this, there is an Islamic edition of, well, it's really a an English edition of my book with Islamic editions. My publisher agreed to allow King Abdulaz University to print this special edition. uh but it cannot be sold because of course they don't they don't uh want it sold in competition to the regular English edition but uh I think that uh shik uh Mustafa Ahmed could arrange for you to

get uh copies of this edition for for your libraries in other words it's not you can't purchase it I understand it in a regular bookstore but if you need it for your Muslim libraries uh you can uh purchase this that was the arrangement that was made with my uh my publisher uh and uh that goes into all the details and many more than than we've had time to talk about here today. Thank I would like to thank Everybody for being patient and being a good listener and I knew I would like to thank the MSA

for uh uh hosting this and the University of Illinois for hosting this meeting and making it possible. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music]